affiliations

The CW yesterday unveiled to advertisers its most ambitious schedule yet, featuring 15 original scripted series. But ad buyers who want to book ads on the network for next fall, can currently do so for 2/3 of the country because the CW currently has no affiliate agreement for next season with its stations in 28% of the country that are owned by Tribune, including the top three markets — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. But negotiations with Tribune are said to be going well and there may be an announcement soon.

NBC has announced that it is not renewing its affiliation for WHDH Boston at the end of this year so that it can launch its own station in the market, but WHDH owner Ed Ansin isn’t accepting the news. He’s taken NBC and parent Comcast to court and is convinced he has a strong case for reversing the move. By Ansin’s own reckoning, hundreds of millions in station value are at stake.

The Sunbeam Television-owned Boston station says the loss of its NBC affiliation violates its agreement with the network as well as the conditions of Comcast’s acquisition of NBC. NBC calls it a “meritless lawsuit.”

Beginning July 1, when its NBC affiliation goes away, Nexstar-owned WHAG Hagerstown, Md., will boost its coverage to more than 50 hours weekly of locally-produced news, lifestyle, weather, sports and community programming in full high-definition. The expansion increases local coverage in Maryland and Northern Virginia while bringing West Virginia viewers the only available state-wide local news programming.

After more than four decades together, Nexstar’s WHAG Hagerstown, MD, and NBC will part. Details of the break have not been made public, but Lauren Skowronski, NBC VP of corporate communications, said in a one-sentence email Thursday: “I can confirm that the affiliation is ending this summer.”

All 17 Tegna Media’s NBC stations are now under one common, long-term agreement. “The new deal removes an overhang from [Tegna],” say Wells Fargo analysts in a note to clients. “While we had always expected a deal to be signed, we think this was a nice sigh of relief for anyone who may have had some concerns.”

The owner of WHDH Boston will challenge at the FCC NBC’s plan to let its affiliation with WHDH expire at the end of this year and replace it with an O&O, according to a WHDH release. Ansin will argue that the plan violates an agreement between NBC parent Comcast and the NBC affiliates; that WNEU, the possible home of the NBC O&O, does not fully cover the market; and that the plan will result in “excessive” media concentration in the city.

The new station would start on Jan. 1, 2017, when NBC’s current affiliation with Ed Ansin’s WHDH is set to expire.”We so look forward to delivering Boston area viewers the best local news, weather and information along with the NBC news, sports, primetime and latenight programming they already know and enjoy,” says NBC Owned TV Stations President Valari Staab in a memo to employees.

Ask Ed Ansin, the billionaire owner of current NBC affiliate WHDH Boston, about what’s going on between him and NBC and he’ll tell you. “They are trying to steal our station.”

Boston television is headed for a seismic shakeup in 2017, when NBC programming moves from WHDH to NBC-owned Telemundo affiliate WNEU — and NBCUniversal is already assembling a news team that includes just-departed WHDH weatherman Pete Bouchard. According to a source with knowledge of the deal, NBC­U already has informed WHDH owner Sunbeam Television that it will not be renewing the station’s NBC affiliation when its contract runs out at the end of next year.

Speculation that NBC would yank its affiliation with WHDH has been going on for months and NBC has made no secret that it would love an owned and operated NBC affiliate in Boston. The current affiliation agreement between NBC and WHDH ends in December 2016. Sources tell New England One that preparations are being made to move the NBC affiliation away from an Ed Ansin-owned WHDH.

With 14 months left on a decade-long deal between NBC and Ed Ansin’s WHDH Boston, widespread media upheaval could combine with the companies’ contentious history to make the next round of negotiations uncommonly tense, or possibly lead to the first shakeup on the Boston dial in 20 years. One potential result — moving NBC programs to NECN — could even upend the traditional, over-the-air broadcast model employed by national networks since their inception.

10 million television households across 10 markets are covered in new deal, which also includes the launch of CBS All Access.

The new agreement covers the company’s WGNO New Orleans and WQAD Davenport, Iowa, and Dreamcatcher Broadcasting’s WNEP Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

The new agreement puts the recently expanded Gannett ABC portfolio under a common, long-term affiliation agreement.

Raycom renews the African-American-targeted network in 26 DMAs, adds network in Knoxville and Panama City; LIN renews four markets, launches in Buffalo, Providence and Grand Rapids; Belo renews in Houston; WVUE renews in New Orleans; WBDT renews in Dayton; WYTV launches in Youngstown

Bahakel’s former Fox affiliate in North Carolina will start airing the CW lineup on July 1.

The Mission Broadcasting-owned indie will add CW programming on Jan. 31. The network’s previous home in the Indiana market, low-power WAZE, went dark earlier this month.